Monday, May 19, 2014

Harry Lord has quit the White Sox, left the team and perhaps left baseball. Behind the act there is a story.

Did you ever know a baseball player who did not love the game? Did you ever hear of one who hated baseball as a business, yet was one of the great players?

That was Harry Lord. He played in the major league [sic] for years, hating the profession, and hating himself for remaining in it…I [asked him] casually, “Harry, why did you become a ball player?”

“Because I could make money at it—and wanted to get married,” he said bitterly.
...
Lord stood it as long as he could. Then he felt himself losing his speed and skill. He quit.

He must not have hated baseball that much. Lord played 97 games as a player/manager for the 1915 Buffalo Blues in the Federal League, managed and played for the 1916 Lowell Grays, played in Portland (Maine) in 1917, then managed Jersey City in 1918.

According to his SABR bio, Lord also spent time as a high school coach and the player-manager of a semipro club.

Reader Comments and Retorts

Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.

The Game of April 16, 1984 was of the tenth-inning comeback variety, which is always fun; it also featured offbeat career milestones from two famous players named Dave.

The Game of April 16, 2014 included a young player setting his career high in runs scored, and actually tying his previous career high even if you only count go-ahead runs in his tally. It also saw a team score 7 runs and one of their players have 4 hits without either scoring or driving in any of the 7 runs.

The Game of April 17, 1984 had CRAZY BASERUNNING. Like, there was an appropriately-nicknamed 41-year-old player scoring on a popup to the shortstop, and a guy on the other team stole two bases and didn't even have half as many steals as one of his teammates.

The Game of April 17, 2014 didn't have so much of that, or anything else overly crazy, for that matter. It did, however, have one team's 8-9 hitters as the only positive contributors in their lineup, according to WPA. (Shockingly, the game did not go well for that team.)

Santorini was one of the last live-ball-era pitchers to start both games of a doubleheader, which he did for the Padres in the early '70s as part of a scheme by Preston Gomez to change his starter after one batter to screw with the other team's lefty-heavy game-one lineup.

Back in the '60s he was one of the all-time great New Jersey high school pitchers.

The Game of May 18, 1984 was started by two pitchers whose careers were heavily altered by injuries (which, shocker). It also included a WPA career high from a player whose post-playing career is much more notable, and a terrible game from a reliever that was not the worst of his career, though fans of his team really, really wish it had been.

Santorini was one of the last live-ball-era pitchers to start both games of a doubleheader, which he did for the Padres in the early '70s as part of a scheme by Preston Gomez to change his starter after one batter to screw with the other team's lefty-heavy game-one lineup.

I looked up the doubleheader. It was May 26, 1971 against the Astros. He faced one batter in the first game and 27 batters in the second game, yet he had the same game score for each game, 51. For the record, the Astros swept the doubleheader, and Santorini took the loss in the nightcap.

The games were Santorini's first 2 starts of the year. He made 14 relief appearances before day started. He made 2 more appearances for the Padres before he was traded to the Cardinals. They were both as a starter in the nightcap of a doubleheader.

The Game of May 18, 2014 provides two useful lessons. First - how to recognize a star player: he is someone who can more or less win a game for his team without doing something too terribly unusual. And second - the downside of issuing an intentional walk that loads the bases.